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The building the northeast corner of Fifth and 28th is still there. Built in 1872-74, it's one of the oldest apartment buildings in New York and one of the few surviving French-flat-style apartment blocks.

Unfortunately, much of the lower Fifth Avenue facade has been replaced. It was designed by George B. Post in the Queen Anne style, with brownstone details. The pyramidal crown with dormer windows has been removed.

January of 1905 was notable for two big blizzards that occurred in New York City and environs - one on Jan. 5, and the other on Jan 25. New York was better off than the rural areas because of its underground subway system. Surface-area trains were hard hit, though, because the snow interfered with their electrical systems and shorted out the lines. Coal-powered passenger and freight trains on the Pennsylvania Central and other lines were kept in the city, because of snow drifts in the surrounding areas trapped many cars on the line. Milk supplies in town ran out.

The New York Times has an archive of all its articles dating back to 1851, so anyone interested can read of the many tales of carriages overturned in snowbanks, drunks frozen to death, and snow shovellers dropping dead while trying to clear the streets.

It appears the the two buildings on the NE corner of 5th Ave and 27th may still be in existence. Their facades have been denuded considerably, and their windows replaced. But the buildings there now, if these Google views are correct, seem to be of the appropriate height - 4 or 5 stories above the ground floors of the mercantile establishments.

Can anybody "on the street" verify this? It would be a small comfort to know that at least a bit of that century-old elegance has survived. So much else has been bulldozed to be replaced with purely commercial brutalism.

Are there any harness and saddleries left in operation on Fifth Avenue? I wonder when the last one would have closed.

It looks as if it could be messy wearing a long skirt in winter but, to this day, in really cold weather I wear a long wool skirt under my long wool coat. I find it warmer than any pair of pants I've tried. These ladies had no choice so they were just plain lucky I guess.

We have had our last two Chili Cook-Offs on the penthouse roof of the new 243 Fifth Avenue. The Aggie Club of New York and the Texas Exes have been using that space for the last few years. Wonder what these folks would have thought to have heard "The Eyes of Texas" being sung by 450 expat Texans ?

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.